Letter: Trump foreign policy is a disaster

We elect presidents for the wrong reasons, and Donald Trump has shown us why that’s true.

Presidential elections are won or lost based on the economy and domestic issues, because those are the concerns of voters. But that’s not where presidential power lies. Presidents have little influence on the economy, but nearly absolute control of U.S, foreign policy. Foreign-relations experience should carry much more weight when choosing the leader of the free world.

George H.W. Bush didn’t deserve to be a one-term president, but the economy was bad when he campaigned against Bill Clinton. Clinton takes credit for a budget surplus, but the credit should go to Newt Gingrich and the Congress. Obama takes credit for job growth during his administration, but the private sector would have created those jobs no matter who was in the White House.

Trump is learning how hard it is to deliver on his domestic agenda, even with a Republican-controlled Congress. In the meantime, he’s making a mess of foreign relations. He has alienated longtime allies, cozied up to the Russians, confused Europeans about our support of NATO, and conducted foreign policy via Twitter. To use one of his own favorite phrases, “It’s a disaster.”